


Make Me Well

by The_Doom_Dahlia



Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn
Genre: Autistic Character, Charlotte feels things so heavily, Cordelia's autistic and she's wonderful, F/F, IT'S BEAUTIFUL, Illnesses, Sign Language, delia's got strep throat and charlotte loves her girl so much, i remembered the 'mummy' thing from the musical and that's now charlotte's nickname, she loves her girlfriend so much, they're so gay, weighted blankets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 09:27:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13073988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Doom_Dahlia/pseuds/The_Doom_Dahlia
Summary: Cordelia gets sick and Charlotte does her best to heal her and gets tender.





	Make Me Well

When some Cupcakke song blared out from her IPhone a few miles out of New Haven, Charlotte almost leapt out of her car seat from surprise. She was returning from a conference for radiologists in Boston, having given a speech about new innovations in the detection and treatment of HIV, and hadn’t expected a phone call. But she could tell who’d changed their ringtone in her phone even as she pulled to the side of the road and hefted the phone up to answer.

“Hello, Whizzer.” Charlotte said pleasantly, leaning against the car a little as she answered with her shoulder and ear almost connected. She took the time to grab her thermos from the car and get a drink of the tea inside while she spoke to her friend. “How’s New York?”

“Cold as fuck.” Whizzer pointed out, almost laughing. But there was a nerve in his voice, something Charlotte immediately noticed.

“What happened?” she asked, voice deadpan and teasing.

Whizzer sighed. “Is it that obvious? Okay so...you remember how Delia and I went to that Lower Dens concert the night you left for the conference?”

“Yeah.” Charlotte said, voice slowing a little with confusion. Worry flared in her belly, but she knew Delia was nothing but faithful. There was zero reason why she should worry, she knew that, but there was still that little green monster growling and biting in the back of her skull.

“Well, it was a really crowded concert and you know how easily things spread in concerts like that, and-”

“Whizzer Hiram Brown, did you accidentally get my girlfriend sick?” Charlotte asked, glaring a little bit. Her glare was focused on the ground, on a dandelion, but she knew she couldn’t be angry with Whizzer. He hadn’t gotten her sweet, sweet Delia sick on purpose. It was accidental and Charlotte couldn’t get pissed. But she wasn’t happy.

“I think it’s strep throat.” Whizzer blurted out. “She’s sick as a dog and...well, I’m not a very good nurse.”

“I’ll be there soon.” Lotte sighed, and a soft tenderness flooded her voice as she said “Give Delia my love and tell her ‘mummy’ will be home soon.”

She could almost see Whizzer wrinkling his nose at the thought and laughed to herself as Whizzer assured her that he would and then finished the call. Shutting the phone off and ducking back into the car, Charlotte clicked the seat belt back on and cracked her knuckles. Blaring some old classical music station, she drove down the road as fast and as careful as she could, eager to return home and help her girlfriend to be well again.

* * *

Whizzer came to the door, relief in his eyes. “Oh thank God you’re here.” he sighed, wearing a face mask and rubber gloves taken from the kitchen. “She’s been a wreck all day, coughing and crying. She missed you a lot. I’m really sorry about her getting sick on my watch.”

“Whizzer, calm down. I won’t blame you for her getting sick, it’s not like you planned on it.” Charlotte smiled gently. “Go home and get cleaned up, I can take it from here.” she assured him, setting down her suitcases by the door.

With an exaggerated salute, Whizzer left.

Charlotte opened up the bedroom door very carefully, a frown settling on her face as soon as she saw Delia. Her girlfriend was hugging herself under a thin blanket, visibly in pain. Her eyes were shut as she tried to sleep, little coughs and whines escaping her lips. Under the blanket, Charlotte could see hints of the words ‘Sweet Honey’ so she knew that she was in one of her band t-shirts. Whizzer had clearly tried to help her feel better, but there were some things he couldn’t do that Charlotte could.

She crossed over, kneeling by the bed and running a hand carefully through Cordelia’s hair. There was a low, confused noise in the base of her throat and it made Charlotte almost laugh. “Hi honey.” she said, voice soft and tender. “Mummy’s home.”

Delia’s eyes fluttered open and a smile spread over her expression. She began trying to speak, but quickly ducked her head away as she began coughing violently. She let out another whimper, this one audibly conveying how close to crying she was, as she turned to face Charlotte again and took her hand, intertwining their fingers. It was obvious that she was overjoyed to see her, even if she couldn’t convey it verbally.

“Can’t talk, can you?”

Delia shook her head.

“Are you up for signing?”

She nodded, managing to sit up a little and signing ‘i missed you lots. please make me well again’, her eyes bleary from illness but still full of adoration.

“I missed you too, honeybee.” Charlotte smiled, running a hand through her hair again and pressing a kiss to the overheated skin of her forehead. “Now, how about I get you some things to help you feel better up here,” Here she tapped her fingernail gently against Delia’s temple, making her giggle weakly and cough more as a result. “and then we can focus on getting you healed up the rest of the way. Does that sound good?”

When Delia nodded, hands flapping a little, Charlotte’s heart melted. After a childhood spent being forced to hide any outward traits of it, Cordelia had only just begun to embrace the fact that she was an autistic woman. She’d stopped forcing herself to not spill her heart out about cooking, stopped forcing herself not to stim and chirp, and stopped trying to push herself to keep working when she was overwhelmed to the point of tears. Her girlfriend was coming into her own all over again and Charlotte couldn’t be more proud.

“Now, do you want your zig zag blanket or your magnolia blanket?” she asked, standing on tiptoe and reaching towards where they kept the weighted blankets. They were in a high place in the closet where Toto, Mendel, Trina, and Jason’s dog who visited sometimes while the family was away, couldn’t get to them.

Delia gestured towards the magnolia-coated blanket and Charlotte gently took it down and got it opened up and laid atop her darling girlfriend. “There we go.” she cooed, kissing her forehead. “Do you want anything else, honey?”

‘will you get my headphones?’ she signed, and Charlotte nodded, getting out a box decorated with music note covered Washi tape. Inside was a small, old cd player and a set of cozy yellow headphones. Set alongside it were a small stack of CDs: B-52s and Melanie and Puracane for when she was feeling good, Magnetic Fields and Regina Spektor and Leonard Cohen for when she wasn’t. Today, she put in _69 Love Songs_ , clicking it into place and gently slipping the headphones over Cordelia’s ears. The cups of the headphones were tight against her head and the pressure against her skull felt good as the song flowed into the base of her eardrums and up to her brain and down through the rest of her.

“Anything else?” Charlotte inquired, running a hand through her girlfriend’s hair. Cordelia was still sweating, still weak and coughing and overwhelmed. But there was a glint in her eyes, and a warmth in her heart, and a spread of joy that shown through her whole frame. To Charlotte she looked just as beautiful as ever.

Delia shook her head, blinking slowly and lazily as music flowed through her. Bumping her head against her shoulder, careful about coughing or anything, she made eye contact with her. “I love you.” she croaked as best as she could, managing to keep from coughing as she looked into her girlfriend’s eyes. She laid back against the pillows and throat racked with coughs until she managed to settle, murmuring sweet nothings again.

Doctor Charlotte Dubois felt her heart swell and sing in her chest, flitting like a maddened firefly in her rib cage. Love flowed deeply into her, even more than it usually did. This girl, this magnificent girl who couldn’t cook for shit but could bake, who had rushed into her life and filled it with vigor and a glow and baked goods galore, pulp novel readings before she fell asleep and kisses before she left. 

Cordelia B (short for Beatrice, but barely anyone knew about it) Kitterey, the first girl she’d ever fallen in love with, was the most wonderful woman Charlotte had ever known and she realized in that moment, the heavy drone of Stephin Merritt’s voice leaking through the headphones and Delia still coughing a little but far happier than before, that she was the only woman she could ever fall in love with. 

She was broken from her reverie, Delia knocking on the bedside table to get her attention as she signed, headphones off and blue eyes wide with worry and clear as a new mirror. ‘are you okay? why are you crying?’ she signed, swallowing nervously and coughing heavily again, hunched over and covering her mouth.

Charlotte gently got her to sit up when the fit was done. Pressing her lips to her palm, she pressed her hand to her cheek. “I love you, Cordelia. Love you more than I could ever say.” she told her, voice choked with emotion.

Delia wiped at her eyes and smiled at her. ‘id kiss you if i could!’ she told her, then intertwined their fingers. They sat together, the blonde’s breathing raspy and shuttering from the pain in her throat. Eventually she released Charlotte’s hands and laid back against the pillows, adjusting her headphones and pulling her blanket closer around her.

Lotte smiled and stood up. “I’m gonna go get you some soup and medicine. Rest up, Delia. I love you so much.” she said again. When the last sentence was signed back to her, Charlotte got her coat and bundled up before leaving the apartment. The silence of the hall wasn’t pleasant, but that was okay. The world outside wasn’t pleasant either, but that was okay too. Everything was okay.

Everything was okay because, no matter what happened to them, they were going to stick together and that was enough.

That thought carried her from the complex, to the drug store, and back again, in a halo of warmth that only grew when she returned, like clockwork, to the woman she loved more than anything.

Charlotte began saving up for a ring the next day.

**Author's Note:**

> i love these lesbians and y'all should listen to The Magnetic Fields, i think you'd like them
> 
> thank you for reading!


End file.
